Twelve Days of Christmas Block of the Month

As promised here is a picture of the Twelve Days of Christmas quilt that I've been working on.  It's a red work and crazy patch quilt (35" x 35").  It will be a block of the month for my Palo Verde Patchers quilt group.  The blocks were inspired by blocks I found on the internet and I then re-designed many of them to fit this quilt.  I also designed the layout.  In the 4 inner and the 4 outer corners are crazy patches made using wool felt.  Each month the handwork group will receive one red work pattern and the directions for 2 hand embroidery stitches to be used on the crazy patches.  I'll be doing the hand embroidery right along with the group.  It should be a fun quilt to make.  I think it will take us longer than a year to make though.  There is quite a lot of red work in the various borders.  That final top border took an age to make even though I was very motivated.  I wanted to get the top finished by today so it could be shown as a sample for sign-ups.  Thankfully I met my goal. 

Twelve Days of Christmas (click to make larger)

Here's a picture of the completed blocks before they were made into a quilt:

 

This is the Block of the Month quilt that I'm leading for this year.  It's called, "Calendar Block of the Month".  It combines redwork and applique.  

This year I also taught the ladies the spray-starch method of applique to use on this quilt.  We discussed quilt labels and what can or should be included on a label.  As a side project, I showed the ladies how to make a felted-wool pin cushion.  They all turned out so cute!

Twelve Days of Christmas

I've been wanting to make a Twelve Days of Christmas quilt for some time.  I discovered that my favorite applique' instructor, Arlene, was teaching a Twelve Days class.  Unfortunately, I joined the class when there were only a few blocks left to complete the quilt.  Not to be deterred, I decided to use the block patterns that I'd get during the last few classes, combine them with other patterns I'd been collecting, and with my own ideas.  Rather than make the twelve individual blocks they were making in class, I decided to put mine all together in one large center block.  There's a primitive wallhanging that I've always liked so decided to base my quilt on that layout (picture below).  I got on the internet for inspiration and ideas, thumbed through a few of my quilt books, pulled out a few of the patterns I'd been collecting for my "some day" quilt, and then started drawing on some freezer paper to see if I could make my vision happen (see below for my drawing).  I just completed the "swan a swimming" - now on to the "maid a milking".  Here's a picture of my progress so far.............

Here's my drawing............

Here's the quilt that inspired my layout (from Primitive Gatherings)................